[Glorantha] Umathela

Joerg

>Me> I doubt very much that the Umathelans worship Theyalan gods "in
> > some strange guise"

>This was an oblique reference to the "Umathelan Lightbringers" mentioned
>in the Malki Coast write-up, which seems to inherit from fan material e.g.
>by David Dunham. Some familiar deities, some differences.

I think the differences in David's material from the mainstream were far too great to be plausible given that the mythos is post Monomyth. That the Umathelan Lightbringers differ somewhat from the Heortling version is a given but I think they will owe more to the primitive nature of the Orlanthi in Umathela.

For example, Issaries is not listed as one of the Umathelan Lightbringers according to Men of the Sea. IMO the Umathelan Orlanthi would have a tracker or hunting deity in the place of Issaries in the Heortling Lifebringer cycle.

> > considering that two names that we have
> > (Kolatsfange, Umathela) are pretty orthodox spellings of
> > Heortling Deities and any post-God Learner phase would have been
> > marked by orthodoxy rather than radical reinterpretations.

>The orthodox spellings might be an after-effect of God Learner presence,
>too (just like the Latin spelling of the Briton name Eburacum became York
>via Eoforvic and Jorvik).

Except that the God Learners were pretty much there alongside the Orlanthi for the Imperial Age. There's no lengthy idyllic period of God Learner free settlement in Umathela analogous to Celtic Britian.

>The theist settlers of Umathela were emigrants from Jrustela who had lost
>against all the heirs of Nralar. Their ancestors had come to Jrustela on
>Waertagi ships from southwestern Genertela (IMO well before the Sunstop),
>and Waertagi ships carried them on into the arms of the Woodland Judgment
>around the same time as Fonrit was conquered by Garangordos.

You are referring to the Arshu Phola (G:tSA p82)? I shall just point out that Malkioni have been in Slontos since the Storm Age and that the Waertagi would have taken people from the coast (to be precise around Narilor on the Wenelan pennisula G:tSA p95). Given that the Malkioni knew of Jrustela in mythical times as Thakarn, the land around the Magnetic Mountain, for them to have mistaken the Arshu Phola for natives would have meant the Arshu were somewhat Malkionized rather than entirely theist. Given that the Waertagi were a Malkioni people, it seems to me more likely that they were spreading sem-Malkionized landlubbers around rather than people without any Malkioni connections whatsoever.

Lastly I don't think Umathela was Terra Nulla during the Dawn Age. There were Artmali nations right next door who would have been quite willing to settle the river valleys after the destruction of the Lascerdans and the Woodland Judgements are a post God Learner instrument of elvish domination rather than a free compact of mutal co-existence and elvish admiration.

>This origin would have kept them out of touch with much of the Second
>Council/Bright Empire unification of Storm myths (continued by Harmast's
>counter-reformation of the Tarumath cult back to Heortling norm). Unless
>Lalmor of the Vathmai brought them the complete set of Lifebringer myths
>and names, I suppose there have to be some differences.

Harmast was a Tarumathi? Even if the Arshu Phola worshipped the Lifebringers, the God Learners knew of the Lightbringers and would have imposed that on them.

>Did [the Orlanthi] shelter some groves during the God Learner
>era, or did they just hide their heads then?

The Orlanthi of Umathela worshipped whatever the God Learners wanted them to. The appearance of the elves at the end of the age was a complete surprise for everybody IMO.

--Peter Metcalfe Received on Sat 28 Oct 2006 - 03:44:30 EEST